Fergie's Tech Blog

Home Recording Rights Coalition Accuses RIAA of Betrayal

Ray Beckerman writes over on The Recording Industry vs. The People:

The Home Recording Rights Coalition ("HRRC") has accused the RIAA of going back on its word, and contradicting the representations it has made to Congress and to the United States Supreme Court, in its suit against XM Satellite Radio.

According to the HRRC, it chairman Gary Shapiro accuses the labels, and the entertainment industry as a whole, of abusing the assurances given to the courts, the Congress and the public at large when the industry pursued its Grokster lawsuit. "Then, entertainment industry representatives insisted that they did not by any means intend to threaten the sort of in-home, private, noncommercial recording that yesterday, they alleged violates the copyright law."

Shapiro stated:

"The lawyer that signed the complaint against XM is the same lawyer who told the Supreme Court that ripping a CD to a PC and then to a handheld device (without paying any royalty) is lawful. He represents the same industry that, in seeking 'inducement' legislation, promised that it would never be applied against devices such as a TiVo personal video recorder. But yesterday the complaint against XM claimed that consumers who use their devices in such ways are violating the copyright laws, and that XM is therefore guilty of inducement."

posted by Fergie @ 5/17/2006 08:57:00 AM